Ramirez has been getting better with each outing so that may help give an explanation for calling up someone with a 5.08 ERA. However, I’d much rather see Maloney who has been strong all year…and couldn’t we use another lefty?
This is kind of a shock. All I had heard was Viola or Bailey. His performance in’08 makes sense but not his’09. I guess since he has experience starting and relieving that made a difference.
Umm, that makes no sense. I would mention Viola, but there are at least 4 better options than, Ramirez. I saw him up here in Toledo last month and wasnt impressed, and now seeing that his numbers have only gotten worse…? Jockerrty really has me quite flummoxed on this one, among others (mcdonald, etc.).
The decisions made by the front office no longer shock me…I expect the worst. You have to otherwise you will be frustrated to no end. Terrible decision if he is pitching more than one game before heading back down.
I swear to God I have no idea what goes on in the front office. I’m sure the reasoning we will get will be something to do with Viola not being on the 40 man roster and not wanting to take innings away from Maloney. Unbelievable.
They needed a long reliever thus led to this decision and he was on the 40 man roster. I get the numbers game. However, Carlos Fisher has been pitching much better, and he’s been a starter most of his career.
The 40 man roster is a mess…look at it, guys…there’s no hitters to call up and it’s dominated by pitchers whom we apparently don’t think can pitch…unless we’re waiting for Rhodes/Weathers to get hurt.
The Reds are busy saving money on the roster moves by the way, including not sending Bray to the 60 day DL..
By moving Bray to the 60 day DL, they are allowed to add another play to the 40-man roster. If they add a non-roster player to the roster and bring him to majors, they have to start paying him the major league minimum. By working with the 40 man roster, and not promoting anyone to the 40-man roster they don’t add a salary.
Also, some minor league veterans are signed to “split” contracts where they get paid more if added to the roster and/or added to the active roster.
This one is not hard. It makes sense. The organization isn’t dysfunctional. Nobody’s asleep at the wheel. It’s only unbelievable if you haven’t been paying attention:
1.) Masset is the long reliever and he’s got only another week or so before being reactivated;
2.) They will not know until Tuesday whether Bray will need Tommy John surgery or something else. They’re doing exploratory surgery to determine;
3.) Bray’s type of surgery determines whether he stays on the 15-day or DL or can be bumped to the 60-day;
4.) Louisville is at Norfolk so they couldn’t wait for the outcome of Bray’s surgery and have someone at GABP in time for the Tuesday night game against the Phillies;
5.) Ramirez is already on the 40-man roster, he has experience pitching in a swing role, he’s been pretty effective of late, he has MLB experience, and he can go back to Louisville when Masset is ready without too much roster juggling;
6.) Bailey was never mentioned as an option. Neither was any other starting pitcher. It makes no sense. It’s only for a week, so why take them out of the rotation and toss them into the long role, which neither Bailey nor Maloney has done?
7.) To call up Viola meant creating space on the 40-man. Without knowing Bray’s status, they didn’t want to risk losing someone, especially since it’s such a short stint;
8.) Promotions to the big leagues are not always based on merit. Roster plays an enormous role. In this case, it’s a NO-brainer to avoid risking a player to waivers for a stint of only 7-10 days.
I agree with Steve, the problem is the 40-man roster. But this honestly might be left over from the previous GM as in the current GM hasn’t been in place long enough to correct the 40-man roster issues.
players on the 40-man roster, who aren’t currently on the major league club breakdown
note the only players listed pitching worse than Ramirez are Thompson and Roenicke
C: Castillo and Tatum
1B: Alonso
3B: Francisco and Sutton
the main problem here is there is only 1 (!!!!!!) bat on the 40 man roster, who isn’t already on the big league club who would be useful RIGHT NOW. That’s Sutton.
That’s pathetic.
Gomez or Stubbs needs to be added to the 50 man roster ASAP. Thompson or Ramirez can go to make room.
If the Reds have another injury Sutton either has to come through because there is nothing left.
a little bit of this is understood since the Reds have VERY FEW big bats in their entire minor league system.
Alonso, Soto, Francisco, and Heisey are about it….in the ENTIRE minor league system
There is a good chance that 3 out of 4 of those guys won’t even make it….well yeah they will but as bench guys.
in the end the problem here is that the Reds have the best rotation they have in the last 10 years with pitchers who have not shown health problems yet 5 out of 14 40 man roster spots are taken by AAA starting pitchers.
Steve, If I follow you, the logic behind keeping Bray on the 40 man roster, and not adding Gomes and bringing him up to the Reds, is that they don’t want to pay Gomes the Major League minimum ?
If you don’t want to pay the guy the Major League minimum, why is he in the organization at all ?
What I’m saying has to do with adding a pitcher or another player to the roster instead of Ramirez; one that is not on the 40-man roster. that would add to the payroll.
Mr. Redlegs is exactly right on all eight points. There’s no sense messing with a starter’s routine – particularly a real prospect’s – or starting someone’s option clock or exposing anyone to waivers so he can fill in for a week or so.
If Ramirez pitches more than five innings while Masset’s disabled, I would be pretty surprised.
I guess Jockety wants Homer to remain a starter no matter what. I’ve said it before, the only way Homer Bailey’s going to be a big league caliber pitcher is to pitch in the big leagues.
If you call up someone from the minors who is already on the 40-man, he won’t have to be exposed to waivers when he is sent back down. They have 5 starters and 3 relievers in AAA on the 40-man roster already. I get not adding another pitcher to the 40-man (Viola.)
Ramirez vs. others. I’d think if they wanted a talented long reliever, they’d go with Fisher. He’s a former starter that typically goes more than 1 inning per relief outing. Maybe Robert Manuel next?
Bailey started last night in one of the DH games last night.
Ramirez had a 7.65 ERA in April and so far in May a 2.37 ERA.
Also, perhaps there is more than they are letting on with the Volquez injury, and they preferred to have a starter up in case he can’t go (or work very deep into the game.)
Greg’s right…if they’re on the 40-man roster they’ve already been “optioned” this season. They can ride the I-71 highway up and down between Cincinnati and Louisville all year and it still counts as one (I believe they have to wait 10 days before being recalled each time).
Adding Viola to the roster would have started his “option” clock and forced a roster move. Viola turns 26 in June…he’s not exactly young either; he got a late start to his professional career. The Reds will want to test him soon enough.
As for Ramirez…his role for the team is just this…to be a “12th” (well, “13th”) pitcher on this team. He’s not a prospect (he’s one year older than Viola), but he’s had a “taste” of major league success last year.
As for options, I’m not certain where he stands. The Padres signed him in 2000 and released him apparently without ever pitching in the minors. The Reds signed him in May, 2003, but he didn’t pitch in our minor league system until 2004. I don’t think he was added to the major league roster until last year, which should mean he would have one more option year after this year, too.
Waivers only apply to a player who has no options…such as Gomes. If Gomes was added to the roster, he has enough major league experience that he could not be sent back down without going through waivers first.
As for the “asleep at the wheel” comments…it’s common practice for GM’s to retroactively use the DL to bring up players (especially those already on the 40-man roster) for 7-10 days so that a manager has a full complement of players on the team. They place the players retroactively on the DL back to the last day the played. Teams usually bring players up for even 2-3 days if a player requests funeral leave or personal days in family emergencies. The Reds haven’t been doing this and that either means we have no one we believe can play, we’re trying to pinch pennies, or we don’t have a handle on the health situations of our players. Eventually, something has to give and game strategy is altered when a team doesn’t have enough players to work with.
As for guys on our 40-man roster…I believe there’s some there that would pass through waivers rather easily, and others that could be easily replaced if they are taken. How many of us had heard of Drew Sutton before a few weeks ago? I can gosh-darn guarntee you that Wilkin Castillo would pass through waivers, and quite probably Craig Tatum.
Oddly enough, and to the credit of the organization, we would probably be better off waiving the relief pitchers on the 25 man roster…
We’re also tied up with Alonso on the major league roster and Juan Francisco. Alonso will be here before Francisco, who’s remind me more and more of Tony Blanco. We really don’t have positional player depth without removing some pitchers.
On comment 22 by Steve. Yes I got that but adding Gomes at a major league minimum wouldn’t add a heck of a lot to the payroll. Or does he have a contract where he’ll get more than the major league minimum if he gets promoted ?
On comment 26 by GregD, if Gomez were brought up, then he’d have to clear waivers to be sent back down ? This strikes me as a more compelling reason to not bring him up now. Once EE returns, who would we let go from the 25 man roster ?
Let me push back on something Travis G. said (not picking on him – it’s a pretty common sentiment):
There’s no sense messing with a starter’s routine – particularly a real prospect’s – or starting someone’s option clock or exposing anyone to waivers so he can fill in for a week or so.
At what point does it make sense? These games all count in the standings. At some point, it’s illogical to lose battles while you’re save ammunition for some future day.
How many games is Wilkin Castillo (for example) worth to this organization? I mean that in a positive and a negative sense — how many games can he expect to win them (compared to the waiver wire catcher)? And how many games are you willing to lose, to protect the possibility that Castillo may, someday contribute more in the future?
I guess I’m not sure it’s wise to play with a 22-man roster for 3-4 days every other week, because you want to save some marginal prospects or re-treads. The other side of it, of course, is that these guys aren’t very good and probably won’t help much in the short term.
I don’t know what Gomes’s contract is….it’s obviously at least the major league minimum if he were to be added to the 40 man roster, and it could be more since he has experience. He could be getting paid more than the Big League minimum now, but it’s not usually like this…especially for someone who didn’t make the team (no doubt he’s getting more than Craig Tatum or Pedro Viola)
But, your point is mine…it’s not much money in the grand scheme of things anyway…and that’s the issue. I think it was Tom who marveled at how hard this team tries to be mediocre. It’s amazing to me how much energy the front office spends to protect replacement level players, which by definiton, are replaceable.
As for split contracts, I found this searching on the web. This was posted by a guy named Brian McTaggart who interviewed Astros GM on split contracts:
Baseball 101 with Astros GM Ed Wade: split contracts
A few weeks ago I wrote a story trying to explain the waiver process. Trying to fully understand the waiver process is difficult, which is why I pretty much asked Astros general manager Ed Wade to hold my hand and help me through the process. Just when you think you fully comprehend the ins and outs and waivers, you forget about something that changes everything.
But there are tasks general managers deal with every day that ordinary fans probably don’t fully understand. You often hear GMs talk about arbitration and split contracts and intricacies of that nature. If there’s some sort of rule you’d like Wade to explain, here’s your chance to let me know.
During the course of spring training, I’m going to have Wade try to explain a few of these nuances to help you (Ok, and me) perhaps gain a better of understanding of some of this stuff.
In recent days, you’ve probably seen the Astros sign several of their younger players, including Wesley Wright and Michael Bourn, for salaries that range anywhere from $400,000 to $500,000. It’s certainly not big money in a baseball sense, but players with zero-to-three years of major-league experience don’t have much say in what they get paid.
Once they reach their fourth year, they become arbitration eligible for three years and can negotiate bigger contracts based on their performances. After that, they’re eligible for free agency and salaries can go through the roof. Of course, the club can always choose to sign a younger player to a long-term deal before he’s arbitration eligible like Ryan Braun and the Brewers did last year.
Here is Wade’s philosophy on signing players with zero-to-three years of service time:
“They’re not eligible for salary arbitration so the club can set their salaries unilaterally as long as it confirms with the maximum cut rule and minimum salary and those types of things,” he said. “These guys, they all sign split contracts that provide for one salary at the minor-league level and a different salary at the major-league level.
“There are some post-incentive performance bonus criteria that’s used to establish their salaries for this year. There is a system in place, but by in large the club, if it chose, could say everybody gets the minimum salary until they’re eligible for arbitration. We don’t do that. We try to be fair.
“A player on the big-league roster gets paid over 183 days, that’s the length of the season. So for every day of major-league service up and active on the 25-man roster or the major-league disabled list, they’d be paid at the major-league rate. If they’re on option to the minor leagues, they would be paid at the daily minor-league rate. So a first-time 40-man roster guy may be making $5,000 a month at the minor-league level and the major-league minimum is $400,000 (per year) at the big-league level.
“It’s an appreciable amount of money, and when a player gets on his second major-league contract or subsequent contracts there’s a percentage — I think it’s 60 percent of the total earnings from the previous year — would be his salary at the minor-league level. There could be a guy down there making $125, $150,000 on a minor-league contract on the minor-league side of a split contact. But it’s because of prior major-league service and the maximum cut rule.”
Earlier this month, the Astros signed Bourn to a $434,500 deal and Wesley Wright to a $425,000 deal. Righthander Sammy Gervacio and lefthander Polin Trinidad got the minimum of $400,000, but they will make much less in the minors.
“Our goal is to make sure the guy who’s two locker stalls down from you is being treated the same way,” Wade said. “Our structure may not place our guys at the top of the heap, but it’s not going to place them at the bottom of the heap either.”
Yes, I believe Gomes is out of options, so if he were added to the 25-man roster, he couldn’t be sent back to the minors without clearing waivers.
But if he’s up to replace McDonald’s spot, then IMO an infielder would be on the hook when EE comes off the DL (assuming everyone stays healthy between now and then.) It could be Rosales, Janish, or they determine Gonzalez is a sunk cost.
2009 stats: Sarasota 2-1 8 Games 8 Games Started 42.1 IP 4.89 ERA 1.44 WHIP
Carolina 3-2 6 Game 6 Game Started 36 2/3 IP 2.95 ERA 1.09 WHIP
Louisville 2-2 5 Game 5 Game Started 29 IP 2.48 ERA 1.21 WHIP
RN Exclusives!
The Big Board -- In-Depth Reds Organizational Depth Chart (updated 2/23/10)
Salary Chart -- Our chart on the current and future contract status for the Reds roster (updated 2/23/10)
Loading ...
Ramirez has been getting better with each outing so that may help give an explanation for calling up someone with a 5.08 ERA. However, I’d much rather see Maloney who has been strong all year…and couldn’t we use another lefty?
This is kind of a shock. All I had heard was Viola or Bailey. His performance in’08 makes sense but not his’09. I guess since he has experience starting and relieving that made a difference.
Umm, that makes no sense. I would mention Viola, but there are at least 4 better options than, Ramirez. I saw him up here in Toledo last month and wasnt impressed, and now seeing that his numbers have only gotten worse…? Jockerrty really has me quite flummoxed on this one, among others (mcdonald, etc.).
The decisions made by the front office no longer shock me…I expect the worst. You have to otherwise you will be frustrated to no end. Terrible decision if he is pitching more than one game before heading back down.
This organization never seems to tire in its quest for mediocrity.
I swear to God I have no idea what goes on in the front office. I’m sure the reasoning we will get will be something to do with Viola not being on the 40 man roster and not wanting to take innings away from Maloney. Unbelievable.
They’re remarkable in their concern for minutia.
Maloney would not have been available for a few days since he just started and they might need help tomorrow. So I get that one.
Yawn.
I repeat, this is a dysfunctional organization.
The 40 man explanation is the only explanation that makes any sense (for a real loose definition of sense).
Just wondering if our GM is so clueless then how did St.Louis do so well during his time there? I mean it couldn’t have been luck all those times?
Homer Bailey was an option.
They needed a long reliever thus led to this decision and he was on the 40 man roster. I get the numbers game. However, Carlos Fisher has been pitching much better, and he’s been a starter most of his career.
The 40 man roster is a mess…look at it, guys…there’s no hitters to call up and it’s dominated by pitchers whom we apparently don’t think can pitch…unless we’re waiting for Rhodes/Weathers to get hurt.
The Reds are busy saving money on the roster moves by the way, including not sending Bray to the 60 day DL..
How do they save money by leaving Bray off the 60-day DL?
According to Fay, Baker wanted a lefty. And I actually agree with Dusty. It couldn’t hurt to have another lefty in the pen, but oh well.
Ramirez is being brought up, as people have said, as the long man in the bullpen, currently they don’t have one.
Why not someone more talented than Ramirez ?
The Reds have been consistent about not assigning a “prospect” to this role.
So, in other words, only poor performers need apply.
By moving Bray to the 60 day DL, they are allowed to add another play to the 40-man roster. If they add a non-roster player to the roster and bring him to majors, they have to start paying him the major league minimum. By working with the 40 man roster, and not promoting anyone to the 40-man roster they don’t add a salary.
Also, some minor league veterans are signed to “split” contracts where they get paid more if added to the roster and/or added to the active roster.
This one is not hard. It makes sense. The organization isn’t dysfunctional. Nobody’s asleep at the wheel. It’s only unbelievable if you haven’t been paying attention:
1.) Masset is the long reliever and he’s got only another week or so before being reactivated;
2.) They will not know until Tuesday whether Bray will need Tommy John surgery or something else. They’re doing exploratory surgery to determine;
3.) Bray’s type of surgery determines whether he stays on the 15-day or DL or can be bumped to the 60-day;
4.) Louisville is at Norfolk so they couldn’t wait for the outcome of Bray’s surgery and have someone at GABP in time for the Tuesday night game against the Phillies;
5.) Ramirez is already on the 40-man roster, he has experience pitching in a swing role, he’s been pretty effective of late, he has MLB experience, and he can go back to Louisville when Masset is ready without too much roster juggling;
6.) Bailey was never mentioned as an option. Neither was any other starting pitcher. It makes no sense. It’s only for a week, so why take them out of the rotation and toss them into the long role, which neither Bailey nor Maloney has done?
7.) To call up Viola meant creating space on the 40-man. Without knowing Bray’s status, they didn’t want to risk losing someone, especially since it’s such a short stint;
8.) Promotions to the big leagues are not always based on merit. Roster plays an enormous role. In this case, it’s a NO-brainer to avoid risking a player to waivers for a stint of only 7-10 days.
I agree with Steve, the problem is the 40-man roster. But this honestly might be left over from the previous GM as in the current GM hasn’t been in place long enough to correct the 40-man roster issues.
players on the 40-man roster, who aren’t currently on the major league club breakdown
Starting Pitchers: Bailey, LeCure, Maloney, Ramirez, Thompson
Relievers: Fisher, Manuel, Roenicke
DL: Bray
note the only players listed pitching worse than Ramirez are Thompson and Roenicke
C: Castillo and Tatum
1B: Alonso
3B: Francisco and Sutton
the main problem here is there is only 1 (!!!!!!) bat on the 40 man roster, who isn’t already on the big league club who would be useful RIGHT NOW. That’s Sutton.
That’s pathetic.
Gomez or Stubbs needs to be added to the 50 man roster ASAP. Thompson or Ramirez can go to make room.
If the Reds have another injury Sutton either has to come through because there is nothing left.
a little bit of this is understood since the Reds have VERY FEW big bats in their entire minor league system.
Alonso, Soto, Francisco, and Heisey are about it….in the ENTIRE minor league system
There is a good chance that 3 out of 4 of those guys won’t even make it….well yeah they will but as bench guys.
in the end the problem here is that the Reds have the best rotation they have in the last 10 years with pitchers who have not shown health problems yet 5 out of 14 40 man roster spots are taken by AAA starting pitchers.
Steve, If I follow you, the logic behind keeping Bray on the 40 man roster, and not adding Gomes and bringing him up to the Reds, is that they don’t want to pay Gomes the Major League minimum ?
If you don’t want to pay the guy the Major League minimum, why is he in the organization at all ?
But Ramon Ramirez is now making the major league minimum, right? I’m not following your payroll argument, Steve.
What I’m saying has to do with adding a pitcher or another player to the roster instead of Ramirez; one that is not on the 40-man roster. that would add to the payroll.
Mike, I think you forgot two names…Dorn and Valaika. Both are struggling thus far this year, but have hit in the entire minor league careers…
Mr. Redlegs is exactly right on all eight points. There’s no sense messing with a starter’s routine – particularly a real prospect’s – or starting someone’s option clock or exposing anyone to waivers so he can fill in for a week or so.
If Ramirez pitches more than five innings while Masset’s disabled, I would be pretty surprised.
I guess Jockety wants Homer to remain a starter no matter what. I’ve said it before, the only way Homer Bailey’s going to be a big league caliber pitcher is to pitch in the big leagues.
If you call up someone from the minors who is already on the 40-man, he won’t have to be exposed to waivers when he is sent back down. They have 5 starters and 3 relievers in AAA on the 40-man roster already. I get not adding another pitcher to the 40-man (Viola.)
Ramirez vs. others. I’d think if they wanted a talented long reliever, they’d go with Fisher. He’s a former starter that typically goes more than 1 inning per relief outing. Maybe Robert Manuel next?
Bailey started last night in one of the DH games last night.
Ramirez had a 7.65 ERA in April and so far in May a 2.37 ERA.
Also, perhaps there is more than they are letting on with the Volquez injury, and they preferred to have a starter up in case he can’t go (or work very deep into the game.)
Greg’s right…if they’re on the 40-man roster they’ve already been “optioned” this season. They can ride the I-71 highway up and down between Cincinnati and Louisville all year and it still counts as one (I believe they have to wait 10 days before being recalled each time).
Adding Viola to the roster would have started his “option” clock and forced a roster move. Viola turns 26 in June…he’s not exactly young either; he got a late start to his professional career. The Reds will want to test him soon enough.
As for Ramirez…his role for the team is just this…to be a “12th” (well, “13th”) pitcher on this team. He’s not a prospect (he’s one year older than Viola), but he’s had a “taste” of major league success last year.
As for options, I’m not certain where he stands. The Padres signed him in 2000 and released him apparently without ever pitching in the minors. The Reds signed him in May, 2003, but he didn’t pitch in our minor league system until 2004. I don’t think he was added to the major league roster until last year, which should mean he would have one more option year after this year, too.
Waivers only apply to a player who has no options…such as Gomes. If Gomes was added to the roster, he has enough major league experience that he could not be sent back down without going through waivers first.
As for the “asleep at the wheel” comments…it’s common practice for GM’s to retroactively use the DL to bring up players (especially those already on the 40-man roster) for 7-10 days so that a manager has a full complement of players on the team. They place the players retroactively on the DL back to the last day the played. Teams usually bring players up for even 2-3 days if a player requests funeral leave or personal days in family emergencies. The Reds haven’t been doing this and that either means we have no one we believe can play, we’re trying to pinch pennies, or we don’t have a handle on the health situations of our players. Eventually, something has to give and game strategy is altered when a team doesn’t have enough players to work with.
As for guys on our 40-man roster…I believe there’s some there that would pass through waivers rather easily, and others that could be easily replaced if they are taken. How many of us had heard of Drew Sutton before a few weeks ago? I can gosh-darn guarntee you that Wilkin Castillo would pass through waivers, and quite probably Craig Tatum.
Oddly enough, and to the credit of the organization, we would probably be better off waiving the relief pitchers on the 25 man roster…
We’re also tied up with Alonso on the major league roster and Juan Francisco. Alonso will be here before Francisco, who’s remind me more and more of Tony Blanco. We really don’t have positional player depth without removing some pitchers.
Greg and Steve, thanks for the education there. I really appreciate you guys explaining those rules
Yes, thank a lot, Greg and Steve, and also Mike.
On comment 22 by Steve. Yes I got that but adding Gomes at a major league minimum wouldn’t add a heck of a lot to the payroll. Or does he have a contract where he’ll get more than the major league minimum if he gets promoted ?
On comment 26 by GregD, if Gomez were brought up, then he’d have to clear waivers to be sent back down ? This strikes me as a more compelling reason to not bring him up now. Once EE returns, who would we let go from the 25 man roster ?
Let me push back on something Travis G. said (not picking on him – it’s a pretty common sentiment):
There’s no sense messing with a starter’s routine – particularly a real prospect’s – or starting someone’s option clock or exposing anyone to waivers so he can fill in for a week or so.
At what point does it make sense? These games all count in the standings. At some point, it’s illogical to lose battles while you’re save ammunition for some future day.
How many games is Wilkin Castillo (for example) worth to this organization? I mean that in a positive and a negative sense — how many games can he expect to win them (compared to the waiver wire catcher)? And how many games are you willing to lose, to protect the possibility that Castillo may, someday contribute more in the future?
I guess I’m not sure it’s wise to play with a 22-man roster for 3-4 days every other week, because you want to save some marginal prospects or re-treads. The other side of it, of course, is that these guys aren’t very good and probably won’t help much in the short term.
I don’t know what Gomes’s contract is….it’s obviously at least the major league minimum if he were to be added to the 40 man roster, and it could be more since he has experience. He could be getting paid more than the Big League minimum now, but it’s not usually like this…especially for someone who didn’t make the team (no doubt he’s getting more than Craig Tatum or Pedro Viola)
But, your point is mine…it’s not much money in the grand scheme of things anyway…and that’s the issue. I think it was Tom who marveled at how hard this team tries to be mediocre. It’s amazing to me how much energy the front office spends to protect replacement level players, which by definiton, are replaceable.
As for split contracts, I found this searching on the web. This was posted by a guy named Brian McTaggart who interviewed Astros GM on split contracts:
Baseball 101 with Astros GM Ed Wade: split contracts
A few weeks ago I wrote a story trying to explain the waiver process. Trying to fully understand the waiver process is difficult, which is why I pretty much asked Astros general manager Ed Wade to hold my hand and help me through the process. Just when you think you fully comprehend the ins and outs and waivers, you forget about something that changes everything.
But there are tasks general managers deal with every day that ordinary fans probably don’t fully understand. You often hear GMs talk about arbitration and split contracts and intricacies of that nature. If there’s some sort of rule you’d like Wade to explain, here’s your chance to let me know.
During the course of spring training, I’m going to have Wade try to explain a few of these nuances to help you (Ok, and me) perhaps gain a better of understanding of some of this stuff.
In recent days, you’ve probably seen the Astros sign several of their younger players, including Wesley Wright and Michael Bourn, for salaries that range anywhere from $400,000 to $500,000. It’s certainly not big money in a baseball sense, but players with zero-to-three years of major-league experience don’t have much say in what they get paid.
Once they reach their fourth year, they become arbitration eligible for three years and can negotiate bigger contracts based on their performances. After that, they’re eligible for free agency and salaries can go through the roof. Of course, the club can always choose to sign a younger player to a long-term deal before he’s arbitration eligible like Ryan Braun and the Brewers did last year.
Here is Wade’s philosophy on signing players with zero-to-three years of service time:
“They’re not eligible for salary arbitration so the club can set their salaries unilaterally as long as it confirms with the maximum cut rule and minimum salary and those types of things,” he said. “These guys, they all sign split contracts that provide for one salary at the minor-league level and a different salary at the major-league level.
“There are some post-incentive performance bonus criteria that’s used to establish their salaries for this year. There is a system in place, but by in large the club, if it chose, could say everybody gets the minimum salary until they’re eligible for arbitration. We don’t do that. We try to be fair.
“A player on the big-league roster gets paid over 183 days, that’s the length of the season. So for every day of major-league service up and active on the 25-man roster or the major-league disabled list, they’d be paid at the major-league rate. If they’re on option to the minor leagues, they would be paid at the daily minor-league rate. So a first-time 40-man roster guy may be making $5,000 a month at the minor-league level and the major-league minimum is $400,000 (per year) at the big-league level.
“It’s an appreciable amount of money, and when a player gets on his second major-league contract or subsequent contracts there’s a percentage — I think it’s 60 percent of the total earnings from the previous year — would be his salary at the minor-league level. There could be a guy down there making $125, $150,000 on a minor-league contract on the minor-league side of a split contact. But it’s because of prior major-league service and the maximum cut rule.”
Earlier this month, the Astros signed Bourn to a $434,500 deal and Wesley Wright to a $425,000 deal. Righthander Sammy Gervacio and lefthander Polin Trinidad got the minimum of $400,000, but they will make much less in the minors.
“Our goal is to make sure the guy who’s two locker stalls down from you is being treated the same way,” Wade said. “Our structure may not place our guys at the top of the heap, but it’s not going to place them at the bottom of the heap either.”
Yes, I believe Gomes is out of options, so if he were added to the 25-man roster, he couldn’t be sent back to the minors without clearing waivers.
But if he’s up to replace McDonald’s spot, then IMO an infielder would be on the hook when EE comes off the DL (assuming everyone stays healthy between now and then.) It could be Rosales, Janish, or they determine Gonzalez is a sunk cost.
Steve, we’re in agreement.
Got it Greg, thanks.
Fay notes on his blog that Volquez is “iffy” for Friday.